Congressional flophouse

Many members of Congress don’t live in Washington DC full-time and they often end up staying in housing that is less grand than the residences in their home states. The NY Times has a story of four Congressmen living in what sounds like a frat house.

While one shelf of the fridge is stocked with beer, the majority of its contents are condiments — mustard, mayo, black bean dip, Kraft Parmesan. Although the pantry contains Costco-size boxes of Barilla penne and jars of Classico tomato sauce, little actual cooking takes place. His daughter Jessica, 17, remembers finding the same package of frozen French fries in the freezer three years after spotting them on her first visit to the house.

This is from 2002 but still worth a read. (thx, tim)

Update: The Times wrote a sequel to the above story in 2007. The update includes a few photos of the place, which makes it look both more and less fratty than you’d think from reading the article. (thx, audrey & kevin)

• politics